The advantages of minimally invasive percutaneous, endoscopic surgical procedures are well documented.
The use of widenable and narrowable surgical devices, including dilation devices, blood vessel widening devices, grasping forceps and laparoscopic retractors are also known in the prior art as shown in the Groth U.S. Pat. No. 430,849; Graham U.S. Pat. No. 1,328,624; Suma U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,028; Taguchi et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,789; Genese U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,079; and Santos U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,402.
The utilization of known prior art percutaneous, laparoscopic surgical retractors through an access port during minimally invasive surgery is difficult and requires precise, safe contact of tissue at a critical area for repositioning the tissue away from the surgical site, particularly when the retractor blades are formed from relatively thin material, such as metal wires. This disadvantage and others are overcome in the present invention by providing a surgical retractor which includes a plurality of spreadable and narrowable retractor blades that each includes a tissue-contacting planar surface that is substantially wider than prior art laparoscopic surgical retractor tissue-contacting surfaces, yet the retractor is capable of fitting through a conventional access port into a body cavity.